Hydrogen Europe

The fusion of hydrogen into helium provides the energy of the hydrogen bomb. The helium content of the atmosphere is about 1 part in 200,000. While it is present in various radioactive minerals as a decay product, the bulk of the Free World s supply is obtained from wells in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. The only known helium extraction plants, outside the United States, in 1984 were in Eastern Europe (Poland), the USSR, and a few in India. 

Hydrogen-storage alloys (18,19) are commercially available from several companies in the United States, Japan, and Europe. A commercial use has been developed in rechargeable nickel—metal hydride batteries which are superior to nickel—cadmium batteries by virtue of improved capacity and elimination of the toxic metal cadmium (see BATTERIES, SECONDARYCELLS-ALKALINe). Other uses are expected to develop in nonpolluting internal combustion engines and fuel cells (qv), heat pumps and refrigerators, and electric utility peak-load shaving. 

Propanol has been manufactured by hydroformylation of ethylene (qv) (see Oxo process) followed by hydrogenation of propionaldehyde or propanal and as a by-product of vapor-phase oxidation of propane (see Hydrocarbon oxidation). Celanese operated the only commercial vapor-phase oxidation faciUty at Bishop, Texas. Since this faciUty was shut down ia 1973 (5,6), hydroformylation or 0x0 technology has been the principal process for commercial manufacture of 1-propanol ia the United States and Europe. Sasol ia South Africa makes 1-propanol by Fischer-Tropsch chemistry (7). Some attempts have been made to hydrate propylene ia an anti-Markovnikoff fashion to produce 1-propanol (8—10). However, these attempts have not been commercially successful. 

Sulfur combines directly with hydrogen at 150—200°C to form hydrogen sulfide. Molten sulfur reacts with hydrogen to form hydrogen polysulfides. At red heat, sulfur and carbon unite to form carbon disulfide. This is a commercially important reaction in Europe, although natural gas is used to produce carbon disulfide in the United States. In aqueous solutions of alkaU carbonates and alkaU and alkaline-earth hydroxides, sulfur reacts to form sulfides, polysulfides, thiosulfates, and sulfites. 

Manufacture. An extensive technology was developed initially ia the 1930s for isolation of ammonium thiocyanate from coke-oven gases, but this technology is no longer practiced ia the United States (372). However, such thiocyanate recovery processes are used iadustrially ia Europe. Likewise, the direct sulfurization of cyanides to thiocyanates is not practiced commercially ia the United States. The principal route used ia the United States is the reaction of carbon disulfide with aqueous ammonia, which proceeds by way of ammonium dithiocarbamate [513-74-6]. Upon heatiag, the ammonium dithiocarbamate decomposes to ammonium thiocyanate and hydrogen sulfide. 

H. Lennartz and co-workers. Vaporisation Equilibrium of the Water—Sulfuric Acid System, Rep. Fur. 6783, Commission of European Communities, Hydrogen Energy Vector, Europe, 1980, pp. 60—70. 

Continuous slurry reactors are generally either of one of two designs. One type uses a reactor loop, generally known as a Buss loop design the other is a co-current hydrogen/fatty acid/catalyst system mainly marketed by Lurgi. Continuous slurry reactors are more popular in Europe, Asia, and South America than in the United States. 

Gas Phase. The gas-phase methanol hydrochlorination process is used more in Europe and Japan than in the United States, though there is a considerable body of Hterature available. The process is typicaHy carried out as foHows vaporized methanol and hydrogen chloride, mixed in equimolar proportions, are preheated to 180—200°C. Reaction occurs on passage through a converter packed with 1.68—2.38 mm (8—12 mesh) alumina gel at ca 350°C. The product gas is cooled, water-scmbbed, and Hquefied. Conversions of over 95% of the methanol are commonly obtained. Garnma-alurnina has been used as a catalyst at 295—340°C to obtain 97.8% yields of methyl chloride (25). Other catalysts may be used, eg, cuprous or zinc chloride on active alumina, carbon, sHica, or pumice (26—30) sHica—aluminas (31,32) zeoHtes (33) attapulgus clay (34) or carbon (35,36). Space velocities of up to 300 h , with volumes of gas at STP per hour per volume catalyst space, are employed. 

Oscine, CgHiaOjN, This substance, for which the name scopolin is in use in continental Europe, was first examined by Hesse and later t Luboldt. It forms colourless, hygroscopic prismatic crystals, m.p. 109 from ether or light petroleum, and boils at 241-3°. cZZ-Oscine has bee resolved into the d- and Z-forms by King by crystallisation of tl d-hydrogen tartrates. The characters of the three forms of oscine and ( their picrates and hydrochlorides are tabulated on p. 87. 

World production expressed as 100% H2O2 approached 1.9 million tonnes in 1994 of which half was in Europe and one-fifth in the USA. The earliest and still the largest industrial use for H2O2 is as a bleach for textiles, paper pulp, straw, leather, oils and fats, etc. Domestic use as a hair bleach and a mild disinfectant has diminished somewhat. Hydrogen peroxide is also extensively used to manufacture chemicals, notably sodium perborate (p. 206) and percarbonate, which are major constituents of most domestic detergents at least in the UK and Europe. Normal formulations include 15-25% of such peroxoacid salts, though the practice is much less widespread in the USA, and the concentrations, when included at all, are usually less than 10%. 

The high hydrogen/carbon ratio of gas means that the quantity of water vapor in the products of combustion is greater than most other fossil fuels. The latent heat of this cannot be released in conventional appliances leading to a low net/gross ratio of calorific value of 90 per cent. (It is normal practice to quote gross CV in Europe net CV is often used. If net CV is quoted, efficiencies of over 190 per cent are possible.)... 

WHO. 1987. Hydrogen sulfide. In Air quality guidelines for Europe. Copenhagen, Denmark World Health Organization Regional Publications, European series no. 23. 

The majority of plasticiser consumption is in CR and NBR. Plasticisers are also technically important in chlorosulphonated polyethylene, hydrogenated nitrile, ethyl acrylate copolymer, epichlorohydrin copolymer and ethylene-acrylic terpolymer. At around 10 kt/annum (Europe), total consumption of plasticisers is on a much smaller scale than the process oils used in hydrocarbon rubbers. Typical addition levels are below 20 phr. 

Most of the hydrogen for synthesis of ammonia is derived from oil or natural gas however, a number of cost-effective coal gasification installations have been commissioned in Asia, North America, and Eastern Europe where oil or natural gas is not available and where coal is abundant. 

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